Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 6.djvu/663

 GLORIA

585

GLORY

angelictis. The Gloria and the Te Deum are the only remains we now have of the psalmi idiotici (psalms composed by private persons instead of being taken from the Biblical Psalter) that were so popular in the second and third centuries. These private psalms easily became organs for heretical ideas, and so fell into disfavour by the fourth century (Batiffol, " Histoire du Breviaire romain", Paris, 1S95, 9-12). The extraor- dinary beauty of these two (to which one should add the "I>u)s VKapbv) is a witness to the splendour of that outburst of lyric poetry among Christians during the time of persecution.

For texts and variations of the Gloria see Bunsen, Analecta ante-niccena (London, 1S54), III; Probst, Lehre u. Gebd, p. 289; Warren, The Lilurgt/ and Ritual of the CeUic Church (Ox- ford, ISSl); The Afnxx nf Ftarius Illyricus in P. L., CXXXVIII, 1314; DrRvN-ni-«, l.'fi'i •<• !l..i,,i„orum olficiorum.lV.l3: Bona,

Rerum lilinm- ■ II, 2; Benedict XIV, Dc S.S. sa-

crifi^io .l/e 'f. 1 I, i v. > 1 , , hi iiiEsNE. Origines du culte chrctien (2nd ed.. Pan-. 1^ •-, I ^, imhr. Das heilige Mensopfer (6th ed.. Freiburg iiii li] ., Ls;i7 i. ;i61-374; Cabrol, Le livre de la priire antique (Paris, taOO), IX, 1.50-156; de Herdt, Sacra: Lilurgim praxis (9th ed., Louvain, 1894), §§ 211. 314; Thal- hofer, Handbuch der kath. Liturgik (Freiburg im Br., 1890), I. 361 sqq.

Adrian Fortescue.

Gloria Patri. See Doxology.

Glorieux, Alphonse Joseph. See Boise, Dio- cese OF.

Glory. — This word has many shades of meaning which lexicographers are somewhat puzzletl to tlif- ferentiate sharply. As our interest in it here centres around its ethical and religious significance, we shall treat it only wit li reference to the ideas attached to it in Holy Scripture ami theology.

I. Scripture. — In the English version of the Bible the word Glory, one of the commonest in the Scripture, is used to translate several Hebrew terms in the Old Testament, and the Greek 56fa in the New Testament. Sometimes the Catholic versions employ brightness, where others use glory. When this occurs, the orig- inal signifies, as it frequently does elsewhere, a phys- ical, visible phenomenon. Tliis meaning is found for instance in Ex., xxiv, 16: "And the glory of the Lord dwelt upon Sinai"; in Luke, ii, 9, and in the account of the Transfiguration on Jlount Thabor. In very many places the term is employed to signify the witness which the created universe bears to the nature of its Creator, as an effect reveals the character of its cause. Frequently in the \ew Testament it signifies a manifestation of the Divine Majesty, truth, goodness, or some other attribute through His incarnate Son, as, for instance, in John, i, 14: " (and we saw his glory, the glory as it were of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth"; Luke, ii, 32, "A light to the revelation of the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel"; and throughout the prayer of Christ for his disciples, John, xvii. Here too, as elsewhere, we find the idea that the perception of this manifested truth works towards a union of man with God. In other passages glory is equivalent to praise rendered to God in acknowledgment of His majesty and perfections manifested objectively in the world, or through super- natural revelation: "Thou art worthy, O Lortl our God, to receive glory, and honour, and power: because thou hast created all things", Apoc, iv, 11; "Give glory to the Lord, and call upon his name", Ps. civ, 1 (cf. Ps. cv, i).

The term is used also to mean judgment on personal worth, in which sense the Greek 56|a reflects the signification of the cognate verb 5ok4w: " How can you believe, who receive glory one from another: and the glory which is from God alone, you do not seek?" John, V, 44; and xii, 43: "P^or they loved the glory of men more than the glory of God ". Lastly, glory is the name given to the blessedness of the future life in which the soul is united to God : " For I reckon that the sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared

with the glory to come", Rom., viii, IS. " Because the creature also itself shall be delivered from the servitude of corruption, into the liberty of the glory of the chil- dren of God", ib., 21. The texts cited above are representative of multitudes similar in tenor, scattered throughout the sacred writings.

II. "Theological. — The radical concept present under various modifications in all the above expressions is rendered by St. Augustine as clara notilia cum laude, "brilliant celebrity with prai.se". The philosopher and theologian have accepted this definition as the centre around which they correlate their doctrine regarding glory, divine and human.

1. Divine Glory. — The Eternal God has by an act of His will created, that is, has brought into being from nothingness, all things that are. Infinite Intelligence, He could not act aimlessly; He had an objective for His action; He created with a purpose; He destined His creatures to some end. That end was, could be, no other than Himself; for nothing existed but Himself, nothing but Himself could be an end worthy of His action. " I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, saith the Lord God" (.Vpoc, i, 8); "The Lord hath made all things for himself" (Prov., xvi, 4). Did He, then, create in order that from His creatures He might derive some benefit? That, for example, as some present-day theories pretend, through the evolu- tion of things towards a higher perfection the sum of His Being might be enlarged or perfected? Or that man by co-operating with Him might aid Him in the elimination of evil which He liy Ilimself is unable to cast out? No; such conceits are incompatible with the true concept of God. Infinite, He possesses the plenitude of Being and Perfection; He needs nothing, and can receive no complementary increment or superfluous accession of excellence from without. Omnipotent, He stands in need of no assistance to carry His will into execution.

But from His infinity He can and does give; and from His fullness have we all received. All things are, only because they have reccivetl of Him; and the measure of His giving constitutes the limitations of their being. Contemplating the boundless ocean of His reality. He perceives it as imitable ad extra, as an inexhaustible fund of exemplar ideas which may, if He so wills, be reproduced in an order of finite exist- ence distinct from, yet dependent on His own, deriv- ing their dower of actuality from His infinite full- ness which in imparting sustains no diminution. He spoke and they were made. Everything which His fiat has called into existence is a copy — finite indeed and very imperfect, yet true as far as it goes — of some aspect of His infinite perfection. Each reflects in fixed limitation something of His nature and attributes. The heavens show forth His power; earth's oceans are

. . . the glorious mirror where the Almighty's form Glasses itself in tempests ....

The summer flower, though only to itself it live and die, is a .silent witness before Him of His power, good- ness, truth, and unit}'; and the harmonious order which binds all the innumerable parts of creation into one cosmic whole is another reflection of His oneness and His wisdom. Yet, as each part of creation is finite, so too is the totality; and therefore its capacity to reflect the Divine Prototype must result in an in- finitely inadequate representation of the Great Ex- emplar. Nevertheless, the unimaginable variety of existing things conveys a vague hint of that Infinite which must ever defy any complete expression exter- nal to Itself. Now this objective revelation of the Creator in terms of the existences of things is the glory of God. This doctrine is authoritatively formulated by the Council of the Vatican: "If any one shall say that the world was not created for the glory of God, let him be anathema" (Sess. Ill, C. i, can. 5).

This objective manifestation of the Divine nature